Curses, foiled again
Police caught a 26-year-old man suspected of stealing a bottle of Schnapps and some cough drops from a grocery store in Riverton, Wyo., after he hid in a nearby building, which happened to be the police station. A dispatcher spied the suspect on the station’s surveillance camera and alerted officers. (KTAK-FM News)

Ironies illustrated
After paying $90 million for its headquarters building in Washington, D.C., the Mortgage Bankers Association sold the three-year-old, 10-story building for $41 million. The industry lobbying group moved into the building in 2008, just before its membership fell from 3,000 to 2,500, and was unable to find tenants for the 168,000square-foot building when the leasing market slowed. (The Washington Post)

Michigan’s Saugatuck Township asked voters to approve a new tax to fight lawsuits seeking lower taxes. Township Board Trustee Jim Hanson explained that lawsuits by developers and people trying to get property taxes reduced are draining the township’s budget. (The Grand Rapids Press)

Anger management counselor Jose L. Avila, 57, was charged with pulling a gun on two men who he believed were blocking his car on a street in Annandale, Va. The two men were federal marshals. According to the court affidavit, Deputy Marshals Floriano Whitwell and Matthew M. Dumas parked in Avila’s assigned parking space while conducting a fugitive investigation. Even though Dumas was wearing his “badge clearly visible hanging from his neck,” he “noticed that Avila was aiming a gun at him.” Avila drove off, but the marshals pursued him and pulled him over. Whitwell said they found a 9mm Astra A-90 pistol loaded with 14 hollow-point bullets on Avila’s seat, but he insisted he had pointed a cell phone at the marshals, not a gun. (The Washington Post)

Suspicions confirmed
Police arrested Edward Rodriguez for drug possession after he aroused suspicion by hiding in a ditch behind a vacant home in Mesa, Ariz. A neighbor reported the man to police, who approached the man and noticed he was shirtless and wearing women’s pants with a hole in the crotch exposing his genitals. The man was also wearing his underwear around his neck. (The Arizona Republic)

Not-so-merry pranksters
A woman told police in Fredericksburg, Va., that she, her husband and a friend were at McDonald’s drivethrough when the friend asked for ice tea. When told she wasn’t getting the ice tea, the friend put the woman’s PlayStation 3 and some of her video games on the ground as a joke. By the time the victim drove back around to retrieve the items, a passenger in another vehicle had grabbed the game system and three of the games and driven away. Police Capt. Rick Pennock said he wasn’t sure what the intent of the joke was, “but whatever it was, I don’t think it worked out like it was supposed to.” (Freelance Star)

Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.